The country-mans recreation, or The art of [brace] planting, graffing, and gardening, [brace] in three books. The first declaring divers waies of planting, and graffing, and the best times of the year, with divers commodities and secrets herein, how to set or plant with the root, and without the root; to sow or set pepins or curnels, with the ordering thereof, also to cleanse your grafts and cions, to help barren and sick trees, to kill worms and vermin, and to preserve and keep fruit; how to plant and proin your vines, and to gather and presse your grape; to cleanse and mosse your trees, to make your cider and perry, with many other secret practises which shall appear in the table following. The second treateth of the hop-garden, with necessary instructions for the making and maintenance thereof, ... with some directions for tabaco. Whereunto is added, The expert gardener, containing divers necessary and rare secrets belonging to that art, ... hereunto is likewise added the Art of angling.

Of the Vine and Grape.

SOmewhat I intend to speak of the ordering of the Vine and Grape, to Plant or Set the Vine, the Plants or Sets which be gathered from the Vine (and so planted) are best, they must not be old gathered, nor lye long unplanted after th••y be out, for then they soon gather corruption, and when ye gather your Plants, take heed to cut and choose them, whereas ye may, with the young Cion take a j••ynt of the old

wood with the new, for the old wood will sooner take root than the new, and better to grow than if it were all young Ci∣on, ye shall leave the old wood to the young Cion a foot or half a foot, or a shaftment long, the young Cion ye must cut the length of three quarters of a yard or therereabouts, and choose of those young Cions that be thickess joynted or nigh joynts together, and when ye Plant or set them, look that your ground be well digged in the Winter before, then in January ye may both cut & Plant, but cut not in the Frost, for that is dangerous to all kind of Trees, or ye may plant in the beginning of February, and when ye do Plant, take two of those Plants, and set or lay them together a foot deep in the earth, for two Plants set together will not so soon fall, as one alone, and lay them a foot longwise in the earth, so that there may be above the earth three or four joynts: ye may plant likewise a young Cion with the old, so that it be thick or nigh joynted, for then he is better to root, and also to bring fruit, than when ye have set or layed them in the earth, then cover them well therewith, in trea∣ding it fast down unto the Plants, but let the ends of your Cions or Plants be turned upright above the earth, three or four joynts, if there happen to be more when they are set, ye may cut them off, and cut them alwayes in the middest be∣tween the two joynts, and then let them so grow, and see that ye weed them alwayes clean, and once a moneth loosen the earth round about them, and they shall prove the better, if it be very dry and hot in the Summer after, ye may water them, in making a hole with a Crow of Iron to the Root: and there ye may pour in water in the Evening. As for the proyning of them, thus, when the Grape is taken and clustered, then ye may break the next joynt or two after the Grape, of all such superfluous Cions as ye shall see c••use, which will cause the Grape to wax bigger: ye may also break away all superfluous buddes or slender branches, which cometh about the Root, or on the under branches, which ye think will have no Grape, and when ye proyn or

cut them in Winter following, ye shall not cut the young Ci∣on nigh the old, by three or four joynts, ye shall not cut them like Oziers, to leave a sort of heads together on the branch, which doth kill your Vine, ye shall leave but one head, or two at the most of the yong Cions upon the old branch, and to cut those young Cions three or four knots, or joynts off, for the yong Cion doth carry the grape alwayes, and when ye leave upon a great branch many Cions, they cannot be well nourished, and after ye have so cut them in Winter, ye shall bind them with Oziers, in placing those young branches as ye shall see cause, and in the Spring time, when the branches are tender, ye shall bind them so, that the stormy tempest or wind hurt them not, and to bind them withall great soft rushes are best, and when the Grape is clustered, then ye may break off all such branches as is afore declared: upon one old branch three or four heads be enough, for the more heads your branch hath, the worse your grape shall be nourished, & when ye cut off any branch, cut him off hard by or nigh the old branch; if your Vine wax old, the best remedy is, if there grow any yong Cion about the root, ye shall in the Winter cut off the old Vine hard by the ground, or as nigh as ye can, and let the young Vine lead, and he will continue a long time, if ye cover and fill the place about the root with good earth again. There is also upon or by every cluster of grapes, a small Cion like a Pigs Tail, turning about, which doth take away the Sap from the Grape, if ye pinch it off hard by the stalk of your Grape, your fruit shall be the greater. If your Vine wax too rank and thick of branches, ye shall dig the root in Winter, and open the earth, and fill it up again with Sand and ashes mingled together, and whereas a Vine is unf••uitfull and doth not bear, ye shall bore an hole (with an Auger) unto the heart or pith, in the body or thickest part thereof, then put in the said hole a small stone, but fill not the hole close therewith, that so the sicknesse of the Vine may passe there∣by, Then lay all about the root of good earth mingled with

good dung, and so shall not be unfruitfull, but bear well e∣ver after: or also to caste of old mens Urine or pisse all about the root of the barren Vine, and if he were half lost or mard, he should grow again and wax fruitfull as before: this is to be done in Winter.